The planning committee of Sumi Literature Board, under the Chairmanship of HK Khulu, IAS rtd, resolved to celebrate its platinum jubilee on 13 December 2022 at the Multipurpose Hall, Zunheboto.
It was also decided that the theme for the occasion would be “Niza tsa na ni ju-aje”.
The committee made these resolutions at a meeting attended by Sumi Hoho, Sumi Kukami Hoho, Sumi Totomi Hoho, Sumi Officers union and many other committees and sub-committees on 24 September.
The planning committee also agreed to have Kaito Aye, Minister Agriculture as the Chief guest, K T Sukhalu, Advisor School Education as the guest of Honour and Khehovi Yepthomi, Advisor Tourism, Art and Culture for the release of Sumi Dictionary.
Dr Hokishe Yepthomi, Advisor SLB, briefly updated the attendees about the history of the board.
He said that Sema Literature Committee, as it was earlier called, started in 1947 with Ikhevi Yesca as Chairman and Avito Kiba as Secretary but the records of that time were lost. In 1958, ‘Education Literacy Association’ was formed with Hokishe Sema former CM as Chairman and H C Khullu as Secretary.
Dr Hokishe added that in 1962 the ‘Sema Christian Literature Committee’ was started and ultimately on 10 August 1971 the Government of Nagaland constituted the ‘Sema Literature Committee’ with Hokishe Sema, the then Chief Minister of Nagaland, as the Chairman. The name continued as ‘Sema Literature Committee’ from 1947 till 1980 whence it changed to ‘Sema literature Board’ and then to ‘Sümi Literature Board’ thereafter.
Vihoshe Muru, Chairman SLB, gave some highlights about the works of SLB in promoting Sümi language. He said that the Government of Nagaland gave permission to introduce Sümi language under modern Indian Language as a subject in HSLC in November 1977, the NBSE gave the approval in 1978 and the first exams were conducted in the year 1980.
Further Nagaland University approved the introduction of Sema (MIL) in Pre-University (PU) in January 1997 and the subject was first introduced in Mount Olive College Kohima in the same year.
Vihoshe added that after conversion of PU into Higher Secondary, Sümi MIL is used in a few schools including Government High School (GHS) Zunheboto and GHS Dimapur.
He said that the Sütsa academy Zunheboto started in the year 2009 and till now 319 students have passed out and 14 have been absorbed by the Government as language teachers.
Sütsah Academy Thilixu started in 2015 with 260 students having passed out till date and diploma course in Yemhi college has started this year and presently they have 3 dictionaries namely Anglo Sümi Dictionary authored by Lozhevi Sema 1992, Anglo-sumi tsashe 1999 authored by Scato Swu and Hokishe Yepthomi, and another authored by Dr Nishena Nekha.
Under the initiative of the Department of Art and Culture an Anglo Sümi dictionary with diacritic markers is to be released soon.
Vihoshe Muru added that the Diacritic- Sümi language is a tonal language and to ameliorate the difficulty faced in writing, the community through its frontal organizations recommended the use of diacritic markers especially the acute (`) and grave (‘) to denote rising and lowering voices.
On a very hopeful note, Muru said that as per NEP 2020 all children from pre-primary to class 5 are to be taught in their mother tongue and to fulfill this requirement, groundwork has been started. The Academic cell are also working on textbooks for undergraduate courses.
The result of an essay competition in Sümi language was also declared in the meeting. Ihoshe Kinny from WSBAK was announced the Winner, Ilina H Achumi from SBAK Nito Mount the 1st runner-up and Iuly H Aye from SBAK Aizuto the 2nd runner-up.
